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Thursday, September 19, 2013

Scott Hocking’s Bad Graffiti

Much has been made of the many wonderful examples of quality graffiti art that we have decorating Detroit. We had our own slideshow last week highlighting as much. But we also know that for every beautiful mural, there’s a nonsensical, often illegible, tag on a garage door.

Detroit photographer Scott Hocking created a series, appropriately titled “Bad Graffiti,” and that collection of pictures came to the attention of Vice, who posted a slideshow on its website along with an interview. Take a look.

The pictures capture such engaging captions and phrases as, “FART,” “Dick Slap Yo Face,” “Moose Balls,” “I Like Boobs,” and “Ricky is a Twat,” among others. We don’t know who Ricky is, but his twatish behavior has now earned him international recognition.

“One day I was working with a friend,” Hocking told Vice. “I was telling her, I think it dawned on me that I should compile these photographs of bad graffiti. I got excited about it, I told her about it, she seemed excited about it and that exact day is when I found the one that says ‘close my ass.’ That’s why it’s the first image in the book, because it really was one of those light bulb moments. I really felt like I had this idea and then I found this unbelievably, enigmatic, awesome piece of graffiti. I still don’t know if it’s a person who was like, ‘Man, my ass needs to be closed,’ or I think they might’ve been talking about the building, like they want the store to close.”

Scott Hocking’s work, including “Bad Graffiti,” can be found at ScottHocking.com.